1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to medical diagnostic systems, more particularly, to diagnostic instruments for detection of tumors of the skin.
2. Description of the Related Art
The incidence of skin cancer is growing rapidly. This is possibly due to the loss of ozone in the upper atmosphere. These cancers can be successfully treated if they are discovered early. It is recommended that people see their dermatologists yearly, so the number of examinations is very large and the time and expense is correspondingly large. At the present time, dermatologists are limited in the tools that can be used for the yearly examinations of patients. The examination is usually a visual and tactile examination of all of the surface lesions of the patient's body using a magnifying glass. Since the larger portion of a tumor is below the surface of the skin, it would be very useful to have a means of observing the volume of tissue just below the observed lesion on the surface of the skin, to a depth of about a centimeter.
Current x-ray procedures for examining the region of the body just below the surface of the body utilize transmission x-ray systems. These systems must penetrate the entire width of the body that lies below the region of interest just below the skin lesion. In order to do this, the peak energy of the x-ray spectrum must be sufficiently high to penetrate the body and the x-ray exposure to the patient is correspondingly high. In addition, the contrast in observing small differences in the density in the soft tissue is not sufficiently great to make such an x-ray examination useful.